Tomography apparatuses are well known and widely used in the fields of medical science and materials research as a diagnostic tool for generating sectional views of an object, e.g. the human body. The conventional tomography apparatuses comprise a radiation source, e.g. an X-ray source, rotating relative to the object and transmitting radiation through the object at different angles. Further, a radiation detector is disposed on the other side of the object for detecting the radiation after transmission through the object. In conventional tomography apparatuses the radiation detector comprises a large number of picture elements in order to achieve a high optical resolution. In this way, so-called Radon data are generated, which are representing properties (e.g. the attenuation of the radiation) of the object and which are further processed for generating a cross sectional view of the object. The general principles of computer tomography are explained in, for example, BUZUG: “Einführung in die Computertomographie”, Springer-Verlag (2004).
One problem of the aforementioned conventional tomography apparatuses is that the optical resolution is restricted by the number and size of the picture elements of the radiation detector. On the one hand, a large number and a small size of the picture elements are desirable in order to obtain a high optical resolution of the tomography apparatus. On the other hand, radiation detectors having a large number of picture elements are quite expensive and require a high dose for a sufficient signal to noise ratio (SNR).
It is therefore desirable to improve the aforementioned conventional tomography apparatuses, so that a high optical resolution is achieved with low costs of the radiation detector.
This is achieved by an imaging apparatus and an imaging method according to the following.